Xi-Kim Summit: China Reasserts Influence in North Korea
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Pyongyang on June 8 for his first state visit to North Korea in seven years, holding high-level talks with leader Kim Jong Un that aimed to chart a new blueprint for bilateral relations in an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape. The summit, held at the Kumusan Guesthouse, comes at a critical juncture as North Korea deepens its military partnership with Russia and declares its nuclear status “absolutely non-negotiable.”
According to the Chinese Embassy in Russia, Xi was greeted at Pyongyang airport around noon by Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju, with children presenting flowers to Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan. The warm welcome belied the strategic calculations underlying the visit — Xi’s first to the country since 2019 and only his second as China’s leader.
A Four-Point Vision for a New Era
During the afternoon talks, Xi outlined a four-point proposal for developing China-North Korea relations, emphasizing high-level exchanges to cement political trust, practical cooperation in trade and technology, people-to-people cultural exchanges, and strategic coordination on international affairs. Xi stressed that China’s commitment to the traditional friendship “will not change” regardless of international circumstances, as reported by the PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Kim Jong Un described Xi as “the most respected guest of the Korean people” and called the relationship “unbreakable,” stating that developing China-North Korea relations is the “most important first strategic priority” of the DPRK. Kim also reaffirmed North Korea’s commitment to the One-China principle, a significant gesture aligning with Beijing’s core interests amid heightened Taiwan tensions.
The two leaders also agreed to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the China-North Korea Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance — China’s only formal defense treaty with any nation — signed in 1961.
The Nuclear Elephant in the Room
Perhaps the most significant tension underlying the summit was conspicuously absent from public statements. Just hours before Xi’s arrival, Kim Yo Jong — Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister and key regime figure — published a statement in Rodong Sinmun declaring North Korea’s nuclear weapons status “absolutely non-negotiable” and “irreversible.”
As RFI analyzed, the timing appeared deliberate — a “two-pronged arrow” aimed at both Washington and Beijing. The official Chinese statements from the summit notably avoided any mention of denuclearization, suggesting Beijing has pragmatically accepted the reality of a nuclear North Korea. This marks a significant shift from China’s historical position, which included supporting UN Security Council sanctions and participating in Six-Party Talks aimed at denuclearization.
North Korea enshrined the “irreversibility” of its nuclear status in its constitution in 2023, and Kim recently claimed that weapons-grade nuclear material production capacity has “more than doubled” in the past five years.
The Russia Factor: A Key Driver of Xi’s Visit
A central motivation for Xi’s visit appears to be concern over the rapidly deepening Russia-North Korea partnership. In 2024, Vladimir Putin visited Pyongyang and signed a mutual defense treaty with North Korea. Since then, an estimated 2,300 North Korean soldiers have been killed fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, according to a BBC investigation, while Pyongyang has supplied Moscow with munitions in exchange for oil and aid.
BBC analysis notes that China “cannot control but cannot afford to lose” North Korea. Xi’s visit can be seen as an attempt to reassert Chinese influence and ensure Pyongyang does not become exclusively dependent on Moscow. The summit sends a clear signal that Beijing still holds a seat at the table in Pyongyang, even as Russia-North Korea ties grow.
This visit follows a flurry of diplomatic activity by Xi, who hosted both U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing in recent weeks. The White House statement following Trump’s visit said the two leaders “reaffirmed the shared goal of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” — a goal that now appears increasingly distant.
Strategic Messaging on Multiple Fronts
Both sides used the summit to send carefully calibrated messages to different audiences. To Washington, the demonstration of China-North Korea solidarity signals that any U.S. attempts to isolate Pyongyang will not succeed. To Seoul, where President Lee Jae-myung has pursued engagement with the North, the summit offered no visible mediation — Kim declared an end to unification efforts in December 2024 and severed communications with the South.
For Kim, Xi’s visit provides a major propaganda victory, showcasing North Korea’s international standing at a time when the country is emerging from years of isolation. China remains North Korea’s largest trading partner, with Chinese exports surging to approximately $2.3 billion in 2025 — the highest in six years. Passenger trains between the two countries resumed in early 2026 after a six-year COVID suspension, and Kim is seeking increased border trade and Chinese tourists for North Korea’s new beach and ski resorts.
What to Watch For
The summit’s outcomes raise several important questions. Will the 65th anniversary of the friendship treaty lead to formal upgrades or extensions of the agreement? How will the deepening Xi-Kim relationship affect North Korea’s ties with Russia — will Kim seek to balance between Beijing and Moscow, or can he maintain strong relations with both? And perhaps most critically, will China’s apparent acceptance of North Korea’s nuclear status reshape the strategic landscape of Northeast Asia?
What is clear is that the China-North Korea relationship is entering a new phase — one defined not by the ideological solidarity of the Cold War era, but by pragmatic calculations of mutual interest in a rapidly shifting global order. As Xi departs Pyongyang, the blueprint for this new era has been drawn, but the true test will be in its implementation.